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Author: Susanne

--Staff Picks General

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Kara, aka Carrot, finds herself divorced and penniless at thirty. Rather than go home to her mom where the relationship is tense, she goes to live with her Uncle Earl at his beloved small-town Museum of Wonders, a collection of weird items and taxidermied animals curated over many years. That’s when a portal opens up […]

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Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala

This third installment of Manansala’s culinary cozy mystery series, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, takes place during the winter holidays in Shady Palms as they prepare for Christmas Eve and the community Winter Bash. Lila’s good-for-nothing cousin Ronnie returns to town after a mysterious 15-year disappearance, and he brings a new cast of characters, and a whole […]

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The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

This action-packed and very current novel begins in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown in New York City. Jamie Gray, a Ph.D. dropout, is fired by their entitled tech CEO and, desperate, ends up delivering food as a contracted driver for the same app company that fired them. One fateful delivery later to a college […]

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All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

A witch child who can talk to birds? Science whiz smart enough to build an AI computer in his bedroom? These two tweens, Patricia and Laurence form a trauma bond through their one commonality—they are both misfits, bullied at school, and to different degrees, at home. During one of her parentally forbidden romps through the […]

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Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

When Maybell Parrish inherits her aunt’s estate in the Smoky Mountains, it’s the perfect opportunity to start fresh, away from her terrible bosses and toxic “friend.” But once she arrives at her new home, she’s shocked to learn she has to share the property with the hot but brooding groundskeeper, Wesley, who has (surprise!) co-inherited […]

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Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

In this engaging and often sardonic first-person account, the nameless child narrator tells the stories of his life growing up in a family of werewolves. Gritty and realistic, Jones draws a vivid picture of the life of people who scrape by on the edges of society. Werewolves are always hungry, always on the hunt and […]

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Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

Twenty-something Hana Khan is juggling multiple responsibilities including her radio station internship, her podcast, and her job at her mother’s halal restaurant in the tight-knit Toronto community of Golden Crescent. Despite the workload, she’s got a handle on her present and clear goals for her future—a future that involves telling stories. That is, of course, […]

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Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

“When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty […]

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Chappie (DVD)

Set in a near-future Johannesburg the 2015 film Chappie (by creator of District 9, Neil Blomkamp) touches on multiple issues, yet at its base, is an unexpectedly tender coming-of-age story disguised as a dystopian action flick.   Chappie, the eponymous main character, is a damaged law enforcement robot who ends up programmed with a new and highly […]